The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.   Archives << current   If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...

oscar's life   Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:18 AM posted by Anonymous   Today is Sunday and we are back in Madrid and recuperating from our almost week-long trip to Asturias. Since we had a week with two holidays, we participated in the Spanish "puente" tradition, basically a long weekend. In this case it was more of an "aqueducto" because it had two spans. We rented a little house on the coast in a village called Oviñana, northwest of Oviedo. We left up from Madrid on Sunday, rented a car from Atocha (under somewhat sketchy circumstances), loaded up in front of our house during the middle of the Rastro (Megan was cussed out by dozens of people but somehow avoided the wrath of police and ambulance drivers). All this for 5 minutes of double parking. A mere 6 hours later we were checked into the house and getting set up. Lolo's worry inspired us to rent snow chains for the car, "por si acaso", but thankfully we didn't need them, although we did see lots of snow a little higher up when we crossed the two sierras between Madrid and Asturias. The next day Jess came to Oviedo by bus from Salamanca. After picking her up, we met up with Bebita and Pepe at their house. We got to look at some photo albums they had of the American side of the family (mostly Garcias!, but some good ones of Aunt Jo and Uncle Trav.) Also saw the famous Lolo baby picture on the wall again. We showed her the album that Jon made from Lolo's funeral. Then we went out to a sidreria for some tapas. We had our first of many formidable cheese plates. Also sidra, chorizo, sardines, pulpo, croquetas... The chigrero was moroccan! Tuesday the weather was bad and we spent a lot of time in the car searching for a place to buy groceries. We experienced a strange strip mall with a vast quantity of kiddie rides. Oscar rode in a monster truck that was impressive. We did get to show Oscar some cows hanging out near a parking lot. Coming home we stopped in Cudillero, a cute little port town. We went to a sidreria and ate some excellent almejas (clams). found a small shop that was open and bought several kinds of asturiano cheese! At home we had a nice fire in the fireplace that night. Wednesday we made the trek to San Martin de Oscos (the town where Lolo's dad came from). Bebita had given me the number of our relative there (Jose Luis) and I'd spoken to his son Manuel the day before. We arranged to have lunch at their hotel/restaurant "La Marquesita" in San Martin. We got a pretty early start for us (10:30) and made one stop along the way at an Iron-Age fort (Castros de Coaña). The part along the coast was pretty fast, but once we started driving trough the mountains, we had to go slow. Oscar and Megan managed to keep their car sickness in check (some foreshadowing here). The farther inland we went, the farther back in time we seemed to go. Each little turn in the road along the riverside had another beautiful little village tucked into it. There seemed to be more tractors than cars, and lots of little viejos and viejas in their sweaters, either walking or sitting along the side of the road with their canes. After slowing covering about 20 miles in about 2 hours, we made it to San Martin... So we arrive in San Martin, enter the hotel, I ask "Are you Manuel?" to the guy behind the bar and instantly we are absorbed into the family. Jose Luis is the son of Guillermo, who was the second son of Carmen. He is also Bebita's nephew and Nonita's brother. He reminded us a lot of Nonita. Very friendly, cool, and talkative. His dad was born in Tampa! Not sure where, but probably Centro Asturiano Hospital, I imagine around 1914? Jose Luis is in his early 60s, his wife is named Mari Carmen, they have 6 sons, including a set of twins. They are dispersed around Spain. We got to meet two of them at the restaurant, Manuel the waiter/bartender (23) and Nacho (31), who is a cook. Spoke with Eduardo on the phone who is a gaitero (Asturiano bagpipe player). Another son lives in Gijon and the other is in the balearic islands and is a butcher. I think the butcher is married to a German woman. All the rest are unmarried, and no grandkids yet, though the possibilty of adopting a child was mentioned. There could be a chinese Perez someday! We sat down in the restaurant and had a massive lunch. The cheese plate and assortment of cured meats (embutidos) was awesome. Everyone was pleased with Oscar's love of cabrales, the stinky blue cheese. We also had the best fabada I have tasted--supposedly a recipe from Carmen (little sister of Luis Perez). We all had seconds. We had a hard time eating because we were talking and looking at photos so much. Could have used some help from a few more family members. We heard some great stories about the family, including the WWII ID-switch story between Luis Perez of Ohio and Jose Luis's dad. Saw a nice picture of Lolo's dad with his brothers Antonio and Ynocencio. On the wall we saw a great picture of Lolo's abuelo Juan Perez and his wife Josefa. Believe it or not, she bore a striking resemblance to Anky!!! Will have to post pictures or a link to our page of photos. Looking at other photos we saw Pat, Kathy, Mary Kate, Neil, Michael, and more people reflected in the faces of people generations upstream. Not to mention ears, noses, and even toes that mark some of our more special family traits. Check out that sketch by Guillermo Perez of the foot. After the epic meal we got a tour of their hotel, which was once the family home, built around 1927. This page has info and pics http://www.vivirasturias.com/asturias/turismo-rural/103086/23245/0/hotel-la-marquesita/index.html It would be great to come back and stay for a few days in the hotel, or closer to San Martin. Next we went on our mission. To sprinkle some of Lolo's ashes in the homeland. We got some advice from the relatives, including Mari Carmen (who wanted to call the nuns and ask them). In the end we decided not to bother the nuns, and not to got to the cemetery, since no close relatives were buried there. Instead we chose the bridge over the river between San Martin and Pesoz, because this is a place that Lolo's father and grandfather would have crossed many times, a river they would have swam in, and a beautiful place. Jose Luis drove us down and took pictures as we did the sprinkling. Megan recited some lines from a Manrique poem. Nuestras vidas son los ríos que van a dar en la mar, que es el morir; allí van los señoríos derechos a se acabar y consumir; allí los ríos caudales, allí los otros medianos y más chicos, y llegados, son iguales los que viven por sus manos y los ricos. I said "Lolo always had a little bit of Asturias in him, and now a little bit of him is in Asturias too." It was was a nice moment. All of us were a little choked up, including Jose Luis. We had a good talk in the car on the way back to the hotel. Once there we said goodbye to everyone, they were all sad we weren't spending the night. We headed out of town through the less mountainous route, making it back to our rental house in about half the time it took to get there. It was a great day. Thursday we met up with an Asturiano that Megan had met on e-gullet for lunch in a pueblo country restaurant. It was another super-size meal lasting 4 hours. On top of the previous day it was pretty decadent. Some of the outstanding parts were the chestnut soup, little flans of leeks and morcilla, and the jabali (wild boar). The desserts were also great, if you're ever in San Roman, check out El Llar de Viri, it's not Goody Goody, but you won’t be disappointed. On Friday we had our most outdoorsy day. We drove, then hiked down a few km to a deserted beach called playa de silencio. Along the way we encountered lots of sheep, some goats, a horse, and maybe some more animals I can't remember. Earlier that day we saw a cow and calf suckling, then a sheep with a little lamb, cool chickens, and a goose that seemed to act like a dog. The weather was really clear and pretty warm. We drove down the coast a bit more to Concha de Artedo, and had a snack of clams and mussels at a seaside bar and homemade albariño wine. After that we went for a walk down the beach, skipping rocks and collecting the cool-looking ones. Megan and Oscar made a little driftwood boat and floated it in the river that was emptying into the ocean. After watching some surfers hit the waves, it started to feel colder, and we headed to Cudillero to watch the fishing boats come in. We parked in the marina and watched a bunch of little boats come in from the open Cantabrian to their safe harbor. We eyed some good looking merluza for sale on the docks. As the sun set we walked around the outer wall of the harbor, passing by fishermen, watching the little lights of the boats heading for home, guided by the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor. Saturday we checked out early and headed for Oviedo, determined for Jessica to see at least one of Asturias's famous pre-romanesque churches! Feeling slightly adventurous, we decided to take the more direct (and more mountainous route) from Oniñana to Oviedo. After a couple of warnings of "Mama, Papi, my tummy hurts," Oscar barfed up his breakfast... Megan and Jessica did their best to clean things up, I tried to find some clean clothes in the tightly packed suitcases in the trunk... All in all, it could have been much worse. We were impressed with Jess's coping skills. I took the curves a lot slower the rest of the way. About 30 minutes and we were circling Oviedo, trying not to get lost... Santa Maria del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo are two 9th century churches just outside of Oviedo on the mountainside. They were built during the time that most of Spain was ruled by the Moors. We got to take a good look at them from outside, but unfortunately, they were both under renovation and locked up, one was even fenced in... Still was a beautiful day and a nice place to be for a little while, on the mountains overlooking Oviedo. Next stop, bus station, said goodbye to Jess until we meet up again in a week or so. We had a really nice time. One more stop before the road home to Madrid. Bebita's house to pick up the photo album of Lolo's funeral that I had forgotten when we were visiting a few days earlier. We had good parking karma and found a spot right in front of her house. So we went up for a quick visit. Of course she had prepared something for us to eat... We could not refuse, so as we recounted our travels around Asturias she fed us her asturiano version of caldo gallego, more cabrales for Oscar, and a little baggie of snacks for the road. We discovered that she spoke Gallego growing up, as surely her parents and Lolo's did too. So we enter into a new family mystery could we truly be gallego? The Oscos part of Asturias went back and forth, supposedly. Hmm, more food for thought. I think that about covers it. We made it home safe and sound, even though we got stuck in a 2-hr long traffic jam 10 miles outside of Madrid. Somehow found a parking spot in front of our house to unload, and miraculously I managed to return the rental car without getting into an accident, though I had three or four close calls in a 15-block drive. Must be the power of Lolo. Oh, forgot to mention that robbers tried to break into our home while we were away on vacation and were mysteriously unable to force their way in... P.S. Photos are here for viewing... http://cubansandwich.shutterfly.com Friday, December 02, 2005 7:15 PM posted by Oscar   Thanksgiving came and went. In an ongoing family tradition, we had several medical crises. Christian went to the emergency room on Thanksgiving. He couldn't hear anything and had a horrible earache. Earlier in the day, he had gone to the doctor down the street, who has never accurately diagnosed any of us. It's a typical neighborhood gabinete--a doctor's office in an apartment building, usually within the doctor's apartment itself. The doctor is ancient and creaky and inaccurate. He told Christian he was basically fine. When he got to the emergency room later that night, the doctor told him that his eardrum was about to blow and that the appearance blood clots and and pus were eminent. Jessica arrived on Wednesday, just when all of this was taking off. I was worn out, Christian was sick and Oscar was cranky. On Friday, we figured out why. He had a horribly inflamed butt crack! Of course, we figured this out after the doctor's offices were closed for the weekend, so off we went to the emergency room again. Oscar told everyone he met about his butt problem in great detail (sangre, culete!). He told the whole story to the florist across the street. I tried to stop him before he got to the really gory part, but she told him that she thought it was better to be open about these sorts of things. That sure made me feel puritanical. He told the cab driver who seemed quite concerned. He also told the cab driver that he really liked a girl named Isabel in his class. The cab driver advised Oscar to tell the other boys in his class that Isabel 'es mio' (she's mine!). Somehow this sounds psycho in English, but made some kind of poetic sense in Spanish. We arrived at the hospital and waited for a good long while. During the time that we waited, it seemed that the butt problem had also spread to his left eye. Cross-contamination, said the emergency room doc. Don't want to think about that too much. Salves, drops and ointments were prescribed. All is now well. Friday night we celebrated Thanksgiving with the guiris (that's Spanish for gringo) at Jeremy's Plaza Mayor apartment. He lives in a five--though I swear it's more like seven--story walk-up looking out over the Plaza Mayor. It was a great feast of Americana. All the stuff you would expect, though dinner started around 10:00pm, Madrid style. Oscar and Christian fell asleep on Jeremy's couch. Bridget's baby--Beatrice--was born that night. I'm now an aunt! And now it's my turn to have this nasty bug. We're off to Asturias on Sunday for a week. More soon.